Coffee shop writers
by Snavej
Summary: Natsu quite frankly felt ridiculous. The worse part was that this had been entirely his own idea, not that Happy had advised him against it. Damn cat. [Coffee shop AU one shot that was entirely Happy's fault!]


Natsu quite frankly felt ridiculous. The worse part was that this had been entirely his own idea, not that Happy had advised him against it. Damn cat.

He was sat in a coffee shop with an overpriced drink and his busted up laptop, trying to write a story.

It had started a few weeks ago when he'd been given back a chemistry report he had written. Gildarts - the best chemistry professor ever in Natsu's opinion - had marked it down heavily for Natsu's poor writing ability.

 _Great results from a promising young scientist, but the report was often unclear and did not flow._

Natsu had, of course, questioned Gildarts about his comment and he had been given the advice to take an English writing module to improve his writing ability. Natsu had chosen Creative Writing because he thought idly that if he became more creative with words that he would be able to insult Gray better. Happy had agreed.

It turned out listening to Happy was a bad idea.

Freed, the Creative Writing professor, had set an assignment to write a story that the student would then adapt though the course to new challenges. Natsu, having never written fiction before in his life, had Googled what writers did. He'd found a lot of writing tips that he didn't fully appreciate and thus had decided to go to a coffee shop to write. To soak up the atmosphere or something. Happy had thought this was a great idea.

Natsu had written zero words. He'd been there half an hour and nothing had appeared on his screen.

"Damn you, Happy," he muttered. Deciding more caffeine was in order, he locked his laptop screen and joined the queue behind a short blonde.

And then someone behind Natsu pushed him into the blonde.

"Shit! Sorry!" Natsu said quickly and she looked around, scandalised. Her eyes widened at the sight of him.

"It's alright," she said, gripping her laptop tighter to her chest.

Natsu smiled awkwardly and she looked away. Then she looked back again, smiled like the sun, before turning back around and giving her order to the barista. Natsu decided the young woman was a weirdo.

Five minutes later, Natsu was sat back by the window sipping at a scorching hot americano and staring about for inspiration. He wanted to write about dragons. But the coffee shop gave no dragon related storyline ideas.

He did, however, have a perfect view of the weirdo blonde. She was tapping away at her laptop glancing every now and then at a notebook. The weirdo was writing, Natsu deduced. Damn her. She was obviously not having any trouble, despite having her tongue stuck out while she concentrated.

If only it was the other way around, Natsu thought.

Then it hit him. He could be the one with his life sorted out in his story. This weirdo could be the one stuck… Caught by a dragon and he would be super awesome and rescue her. Or at least, his character would.

He grinned at his awesome and totally original idea and began writing in spite of the weirdo blonde.

* * *

"Excuse me?"

Natsu looked up. It was the weirdo blonde. Natsu's eyes went wide. Had she known he was writing about her?

"You're sat by the only plug socket and my laptop is about to run out of battery, do you mind if I sit here until it's recharged?"

Natsu sighed in relief and nodded. He budged his laptop up a bit so she could fit on the table opposite him.

"Are you a writer?" she asked. "Just I caught sight of what you were doing." She indicated his screen. Natsu gulped.

"Not really," he admitted. "But I took a Creative Writing module 'cos Gildarts said my writing sucks."

"Can I read it?" she asked. "I can give you constructive criticism if you like? I've taken a few writing modules myself."

Natsu looked at his screen and then at the blonde. On the one hand, it made sense to get help with something he sucked at. On the other, he'd totally written about this weirdo and she might notice.

But there were lots of busty blondes with brown eyes that were a bit weird in this world, right?

"Sure!" he spun the laptop around and proceeded to watch her eyes scan the page. "The prompt was a short story, under 5000 words," he added nervously. The blonde's face was blank as she read. When she finished, she looked up.

"I have a few questions," she began.

"Okay?"

"Why is the girl called Luigi?"

"I couldn't think of a better name."

"I see," she said. "Why does the cat talk and fly?"

"Because that would be awesome, I'd love it if my cat could talk to me and fly."

"I see," she said. "Why did the dragon capture this girl?"

"He was lonely, he lost his son," Natsu replied. He wasn't about to tell her the dragon was based on his dad.

"So what happens next?"

"The dragon and the Salamander become best friends and they live happily ever after and do awesome stuff like setting stuff on fire."

"And the girl?"

"I don't know," he frowned. "The Salamander was rescuing her so she might just go home."

"I see."

"So how is it?"

"Honestly? It's awful. Your writing is telling me everything and not showing me things. Like this bit," she read aloud a section from his story, "'the girl was blonde and had brown eyes and was tied up next to the big red dragon'." She looked pityingly at him. "You've just listed things."

"But how else do you tell the reader what the characters look like?"

"You slip it in casually without listing things for a start. Also, your characters are a bit flat. The Salamander guy seems not to have any emotions. Like, you could reword this bit about him first seeing the dragon so that he's intimidated by it." She thought for a moment. "Like, 'the sheer size of the creature sent fear into his heart'," she suggested. "That gives an indication of the size of the dragon and gives your character a new emotion."

"But he isn't scared by the dragon," Natsu insisted, his character was too awesome for that.

"Really?" the weirdo asked sceptically. "Massive dragon and he wouldn't even be a little scared? Being scared keeps us alive, or is he a suicidal maniac?"

That made Natsu think.

"Sorry, I realise that was harsh criticism, but you've got a great imagination there. It would be a shame not to share it."

With that, she turned Natsu's laptop around and continued typing.

Natsu frowned and began rereading his own work.

* * *

"How about this?"

Natsu shoved his laptop back towards the blonde who smiled and began reading once again.

"This is much better," she said. "Though you've gone over your word limit count."

They had been passing Natsu's laptop back and forth as he honed his work.

"What? No! But this is the best thing I've ever written! I don't want to cut bits out!" Natsu whined.

"You have Professor Freed right?"

"Yeah." Natsu nodded.

"He's a stickler for rules, I think you're best off saving this as it is and then cut down another version of it. So you can keep this original copy."

"Yeah, but he won't appreciate it for its true awesomeness."

The blonde laughed and Natsu grinned. The coffee shop had been a great idea. He would thank Happy later.

"What's your story about?" Natsu asked. Curiosity had been burning at him for a while about what the weirdo was writing.

"A boy who is possessed into enslaving his friends to build a giant magical tower to resurrect an evil dark wizard."

Natsu gaped. He hadn't expected that answer. He wasn't sure what he expected, but it hadn't been that.

"That sounds cool," he said. "What happens?"

"A childhood friend that escaped gets kidnapped back to the tower to be a sacrifice and her friends try to rescue her."

"Do they succeed?"

"Yeah, kind of."

"Can I read it?"

Her smile lessened.

"No. I mean, not yet. It's part of a series I'm writing and I'm making revisions at the moment over a few characters…"

Natsu nodded his understanding and returned to his work.

* * *

When Natsu noticed the time, he swore loudly. So loudly that the weirdo looked up.

"Erza is going to kill me," he said as if that would explain everything. The weirdo smiled.

"Girlfriend?"

"I don't have that much of a death wish. Nah, I promised to help at the dojo." Natsu began shoving things haphazardly into his bag before looking at the weirdo and frowning. Then he scribbled something on a piece of paper and thrust it at her.

"Thanks for your help." And then he practically ran out of the coffee shop. Erza did not like people to be late. Besides, he had to rub it in Ice Prick's face that he'd had the balls to give his number to a real life female. He decided not to mention that she'd been weird or that he didn't know her name. Or the fact that he hadn't told her his name...

He managed to arrive at the dojo on time and quickly changed into his gi.

"Oi, Flame Breath, where have you been all day?" Gray asked.

"Doing an assignment, why?"

"You were working?" Gray sounded incredulous.

"Yeah, in the coffee shop near the library."

Gray's mouth fell open, then he muttered something darkly.

"What was that?"

"I called you a hipster."

Natsu wasn't entirely sure if that was an insult, but Gray's tone was enough for him to decide that it was. So he punched him.

Before their brawl got much further, another voice interrupted.

"I hope you two are not fighting."

Both young men sprung apart before quickly hugging each other tightly.

"Of course not," they said in unison.

"Good, because I need you to help with two of our young brown belts. Wendy and Romeo here are both going to take their black belt exam next month and they have a few issues to work on before then. Gray take Romeo and have him work on his katas, currently, he's speeding through moves and thus missing the skill we know he has. Natsu, take Wendy and get her comfortable with sparring." Erza turned to Wendy and relaxed her voice. "You can't hurt Natsu, so don't worry about giving it your all." Then she suddenly struck out at Natsu, who groaned as her fist made contact with his stomach. "See, he's fine."

Natsu was on the floor. Wendy did not look convinced.

"I'm fine," he muttered as he dragged himself back to his feet. "Right, your turn to attack me."

"But I don't want to hurt you," Wendy said timidly.

"Well I should know how to defend myself," Natsu said with a grin. "People are going to assume that because you're small, that you're weak. We all know you aren't. Now prove it to me."

Natsu threw a slow punch and Wendy batted it away. So he threw another and Wendy continued to defend herself.

"If you don't land at least one hit on me by the end of this session, Erza will be pissed," Natsu commented. Fear flickered in Wendy's eyes and suddenly, she really began trying to attack Natsu.

There was a resounding crash at Wendy landed a solid thrust kick in Natsu's abdomen and he crumpled to the floor. The entire dojo stopped and stared. Wendy's hands flew to cover her face.

"I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" she rushed over to check Natsu was still alive and he pulled her into a headlock and messed up her hair.

"That was a great kick," he told her. "But don't let your guard down."

"Yes Natsu," she whispered, glad he wasn't hurt.

"I'm glad you're making progress," Erza said as she walked over. "Wendy, I want you to lead the cool down as you've put so much effort in today."

Wendy beamed at the responsibility and ran off to call the individuals back I to a group. Erza looked down at Natsu.

"You shouldn't let her beat you," she muttered.

"She deserved it, she worked hard," Natsu muttered. In truth, he was very proud of Wendy. "She'll be a great little competitor if she keeps up this training."

"I'm pissed at Gray," Erza said as they walked to the kitchen to grab drinks. "He is not giving Juvia an answer and I have already spoken with him on the matter."

"Maybe you should punch some sense into him?" Natsu suggested hopefully.

"The thought has crossed my mind," she admitted. "I know you two are close friends," - Natsu coughed - "would you speak with him?"

Natsu didn't answer, but Erza didn't need him too.

* * *

 **I think Lucy would be a better name than Luigi.**

Natsu found the text when he got home later that night. Natsu thought the weirdo had a point, at least 'Lucy' was a female name.

 **I'll think about it,** he replied.

 **It would only be fair to name the character you based off me properly, you know,** she sent back.

Natsu swore. She had realised.

 **Who said she was based off you?**

Ha! Natsu thought, that would stump her.

 **I apologise, there are 'blonde busty brown eyed girls' all over the place.**

Natsu grinned.

 **Exactly, jeesh, the world doesn't revolve around you :p** he sent.

 **What's your name? My housemate wants to Facebook stalk you,** she texted back.

 **Your friend, huh?** Natsu replied.

 **Yeah, she is just that bored,** he received.

Natsu thought for a moment.

 **Look up Fairy Tail's Salamander,** he suggested.

He did not get a reply from the weirdo.

* * *

"Back again?"

Natsu looked up. It was the weirdo blonde - Lucy? - with her laptop under one arm and her coffee in the other.

"Yeah, it worked last week," he muttered. "Professor Freed didn't lynch me."

"That's a good start," Lucy said. She sat down opposite him and plugged in her laptop. "What's this week's challenge?"

"To rewrite our short story in a new genre."

"Ooh, tough one. So your story is an adventure," she mused. "So you could change it to a comedy? Or a tragedy? Maybe horror?"

"I wanted to do horror!" Natsu protested. "Like blood and guts and all that, but Freed pulled me aside and was like 'get out of your comfort zone', 'cos I know too much about fighting and stuff anyway."

"Yeah I saw from your Facebook," Lucy said. "Levy was terrified watching some of those sparring videos."

"What? Those were tame!"

"How long have you been doing it?"

"Karate? Years, my dad first took me as soon as I could walk!" Natsu said, grinning. "Beat Gray to being a black belt too!"

Lucy smiled.

"So what are you going to do for your story? What genre?"

"Freed hinted I should do romance," Natsu said with a sneer. "But that's lame."

"Really? You think?" Lucy raised an eyebrow at Natsu, who suddenly felt ashamed of his words.

"Well, kissy stuff is," he muttered.

"Romance isn't all about kissy stuff," Lucy said with a sigh. "Sometimes it's too good friends that fall for each other. Your Salamander and Luigi characters are stuck with each other for a while, and they become friends. I don't see why they couldn't fall in love."

"But that'd be like you and me falling in love! That's impossible!" Natsu replied.

"Completely," Lucy agreed. "But these are characters. You don't have to base them entirely off of one person. Do you know anyone with a girlfriend or boyfriend?"

"Gray has a stalker? Does that count?"

"Really?" Lucy sounded concerned.

"No, she just really, really likes him," Natsu told her. "I don't see why 'cos Gray sucks."

"Okay, but how does she show that?"

"Making him food, clinging to his arm and stuff," Natsu said, thinking. "I mean being made food sounds alright."

"Okay, and what does Gray do for her? Does he like her back?"

"He totally does, but the idiot won't admit it," Natsu said with a snigger. "I dunno, he doesn't seem to do anything. I mean he teaches her things sometimes? Like she's not from around here at all so he helped with local customs?"

"Cool," Lucy said. "So why don't you draw on that? I mean, what would you find attractive in someone?"

"I dunno," Natsu said. "Never thought about it."

"Think about it now, make a list, it might help you!"

Lucy looked back at her own laptop and started typing away. She tried to ignore Natsu's frowning face as he stared out of the window.

Finally, he began typing with a grin. Glad she'd helped, they both settled down to write.

Almost an hour later, Natsu spun his laptop around.

"Read it, I want another drink," he said. "Do you want one?"

"Sure, another one of these please," Lucy replied, indicating her cup. Natsu ran off to join the back of the queue and Lucy began to read.

Natsu had added a few new characters that had plumped out the story nicely. The flying cat had a new friend and Salamander had a little sister who helped him out. Natsu had also introduced a character named Ice Princess who seemed to have a lot of unfortunate accidents on their journey.

"Well? I know it's not done yet-"

"It's good. I like the new characters, though I feel like this ice Princess character is getting beaten up a little too much," Lucy said. She had her suspicions about the characters.

"Yeah well Gray sucks and always gets beaten up."

"Really?"

"Well not always," Natsu relented. "But he's still not as good as me."

"And is Ice Princess really an appropriate name?"

"Well, I was thinking that Salamander's power is fire right? So Gray's would be ice. So Ice Princess."

Lucy shook her head and sighed.

"Who's Wendy?"

"Girl at the dojo," Natsu said with a grin. "She's gonna be great. She just needs a confidence boost. I've been giving her one on one training because she's gonna do her black belt soon."

"That's awesome."

"Yeah," Natsu agreed. "I better get on." He pulled his laptop towards him.

"You and Gray are friends really, right?"

Natsu looked around as if checking for people listening in.

"I guess," he whispered. "I mean I guess I could rely on him a bit."

Lucy nodded her head towards his laptop and Natsu got the hint.

He wrote until once again he had to sprint from the coffee shop to get to the dojo on time. Lucy laughed at him leaving.

* * *

 **Thanks for your help again! Freed thought I did awesome,** Lucy received on the following Friday morning.

 **No problem! Will I see you tomorrow?** she replied, hopeful that Natsu would join her in the coffee shop again. It was nice having company while writing, even if they didn't talk a lot.

 **Nah, gotta help with the grading tomorrow!**

Lucy couldn't help but be disappointed. She turned back to her own homework assignment, but her enthusiasm was gone.

 **You could come watch if you like?**

She hadn't expected the second text.

 **I know nothing about karate though?** she sent back.

 **Neither does Gray, he still comes XD**

And so that's how Lucy found herself walking into the sports hall that acted as the dojo for the local karate club. Natsu was already dressed in his gi when he bounded out to meet her.

"Lucy! You came!"

His grin was infectious.

"Of course, I did," she replied. Lucy struggled to write fight scenes, so she hoped that some real life sparring would help.

"Oi! Gray!" Natsu bellowed over his shoulder. He grabbed Lucy's hand and practically dragged her inside. There were what seemed like hundreds of people dressed in white gis with various coloured belts. In reality, there may have only been forty or fifty, but combined with the rows of parents, it made the hall feel very crowded.

"What?" a grouchy looking black haired male replied.

"This is Lucy! Told you I gave my number to a girl!"

Gray looked between Natsu's victorious grin and Lucy's nervous smile.

"How much is he paying you?"

"He's not," Lucy replied. But her words were lost as Natsu aimed a fist at Gray's face.

"Boys?"

Both young men shrank visibly at the sound of the voice. Lucy spotted the voice's owner - a young woman with flaming red hair.

"Natsu, who is this?"

"Lucy," he whimpered.

Lucy wasn't sure whether she should laugh or not.

"You're Natsu's girlfriend?"

"Oh no!" Lucy said quickly. "We're writing partners!"

The redhead looked mortified.

"I'm sorry, I should not have assumed. Please hit me," she said seriously.

"I, uh, no, I couldn't," Lucy said. She held up her hands to show she meant no danger.

"You must."

"I'll do it!" Natsu offered, he turned to Lucy. "I'll punch Erza for you!"

"No, please don't," Lucy said.

Fortunately, another voice called through at that moment; the grading was about to start. Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand again.

"Come on, I'll get you a good seat!"

Once seated, Lucy watched as Natsu, Gray and Erza - along with a few other more experienced students - ushered the younger and less experienced members into the correct places.

The grading began. Lucy didn't really understand most of what was going on but soon gathered that there were three bits to the grading. A basic proof of being able to do certain techniques, then a dance-like routine thing and finally sparring.

Lucy marvelled at the progression of skill from the white belts - who were shaking with nerves - up to the brown belts.

Finally, when it was all over and all the people who had passed had been given their new belts, Natsu came back over.

"What do you think?"

"It's really impressive! Though I was expecting more really sparring," Lucy admitted.

"You wanna see some sparring?"

"Well it would help with writing my story," she said, glancing at the floor.

"I see!" Natsu grinned. "I can arrange that!"

"You don't-"

"Erza! Gray! Get the black and brown belts back here! Impromptu sparring session!"

Lucy expected them to argue, but instead, Natsu's friends grinned. Five minutes later Lucy was watched a bunch of partnered black and brown belts freestyle sparring. She noted that Gray and Natsu were both trying to fight Erza at the same time, and failing miserably.

Seeing that there was no point in hiding her intentions anymore, Lucy pulled out her notebook and scribbled some phrases that came to mind.

"Stop! Five-minute drink break!" Erza called. Lucy walked over to Natsu.

"This is so impressive!"

"Do you want a go?"

"What? No!" Lucy insisted.

"It would be a good way of feeling the emotions for yourself," Erza cut in. "That is vital to writing."

"What do you know about writing?" Gray asked.

Erza's cheeks suddenly matched her hair.

"Well I, um - No reason!" She turned back to Lucy. "Take off your shoes and place them at the side. Natsu, show her how it feels, but if you touch a hair on her head I will skin you alive."

Lucy felt like she had little say in the matter, so pulled off her boots and her socks and dumped them with her bag at the side by the window.

Natsu was bouncing on the balls of his feet as the session restarted. Lucy crossed her arms protectively across her chest.

"Alright, stop right there! Put your arms out in front of you, like this," Natsu said, demonstrating. "You want one in front of your body, and one higher up, in front of your face. And stand slightly side on, makes you less of a target."

"Like this?"

"Yup."

"Right, so now what? You hit me?"

"Nah, you try and hit me," Natsu said. "Way more fun."

Lucy frowned and tried to punch forwards. Natsu swatted her hand away. Lucy tried again, but Natsu blocked.

"See? Single punches rarely work," he said. "You have to try a combination. And also, when you punch, but your weight behind it. Twist your hips so your torso helps provide the power behind the hit."

Lucy's frown deepened and she tried to hit him first with her left hand, then her right. Natsu blocked both with ease.

"That was better," he said. "Try again."

And so they went back and forth for about twenty minutes, Natsu stopping to guide Lucy and show her how things should be done.

Erza finally called the session to a close.

"That was fun," Natsu said. "You're really good for a newbie!"

"Yeah, but I imagine I would die if you actually tried to fight me," Lucy said.

"Yeah, there's this nerve on the side of your neck that if I hit it too hard, you could die," Natsu said.

"Yeah…" Lucy looked away. The black and brown belts were collecting their stuff.

"We're all going for a meal if you want to join us?"

"Um, sure?"

"Great?" Natsu gave her an awkward side hug.

"Eww! You're all sweaty!"

But Natsu only laughed.

* * *

"You grab our table, I'll get the drinks this time," Lucy said. Natsu ran off to claim the table they always sat at and Lucy joined the queue. Ten minutes later, she carried their drinks over and slunk into her own seat.

"So what's the challenge for this week?"

"Character switch up, so make a good character secretly bad, or a bad character secretly good," Natsu said. "I just don't know which character to do it with…"

"Hmm, that's a tough one. I mean if you want this to have an effect on your audience, it needs to be a character everyone really cares about," Lucy mused. "Which character do you care about most?"

"I care about all of them," Natsu said indignantly.

Lucy smiled.

"Okay, but making the talking cat secretly evil isn't going to really hit home, is it? Like even Luigi could just sit on him."

"Well yeah, Luigi has a big butt," Natsu agreed.

Lucy scowled.

"And who's butt have you base that on?"

"Yours of course!"

Lucy's mouth dropped open.

"I do not have a big butt!"

"Happy thinks so," Natsu said.

"What?" Lucy was taken aback.

"Happy, he's my cat. I showed him a picture of you, he thought you had a big butt," Natsu said with a serious expression.

"Cats can't talk," Lucy muttered.

Natsu only rolled his eyes at Lucy's foolishness.

"Get writing, you weirdo," Natsu said.

"I am! You get writing!" Lucy protested. Natsu grinned and began typing.

Some time later, Natsu sat back and admired his work.

"I'm glad we don't have a word count for this one."

"Who did you change?"

"The Salamander," Natsu said. "I made him secretly a demon, but so that even he didn't know about it. And then someone releases his demon form and all his friends end up fighting him to get their friend back!"

"What about the dragon?"

"Oh, I killed him off."

"What?!"

"I was thinking of making that the reason his demon form was released? Emotional turmoil and all, but the Salamander isn't like that," Natsu said.

"But I liked the dragon! He was the best," Lucy protested. "Let me read it!"

She snatched the laptop around and scrolled to the top. Habitually, she corrected the grammar and spelling mistakes Natsu and the spellchecker had missed.

By the end of the story, that was now nearing 30k words, Lucy was speechless.

"Well?" Natsu said. He'd gone and got them another round of drinks, but Lucy hadn't even noticed. "What do you think?"

"It's so good! I mean the names of the characters are a bit weird," she said, still staring at his screen. "But this is awesome!"

She grinned at him and spotted her drink.

Natsu pushed it towards her.

"Awesome! Well, that's my homework done!" He studied Lucy's face for a moment. "Can I read yours yet?"

"No," Lucy said with a frown.

"Oh come on, just a little bit?"

He pleaded with his best puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, you can read a bit."

She copied and pasted the opening few pages into a new document and turned her laptop around. Natsu devoured the words on the screen like a starving child.

"Well?"

"This Siegrain guy is a jerk!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Well he is a baddie," Lucy pointed out.

"I hope they show him what for," Natsu said. "When can I read the rest?"

"When I'm happy with it."

"And when will that be?"

"I don't know," Lucy said. "I wanted to leave it with a bittersweet ending. But I also wanted to show intimacy between… Well, never mind."

"Well I wanna read it," Natsu said. "And that's a compliment 'cos I don't read a lot."

"Thanks," Lucy mumbled, her cheeks turning pink. "I haven't shown it to anyone else yet."

Natsu grinned.

"Well I better be off, I've got training!" he said suddenly. "See you next week?"

"Yeah!"

* * *

"Her story is seriously good Happy, I think you'd like it," Natsu muttered as he brushed his teeth. His cat was sat in the doorway as if it was listening intensely. "I was thinking of inviting her out to the Halloween party with the others, what do you think?"

Happy meowed.

"Really? You don't think she'd like it?"

The cat meowed again.

"So what?" Natsu spat the toothpaste foam from his mouth and rinsed it out. "I should go with her somewhere just the two of us?"

Happy's meow was longer and more teasing this time.

"Well Lucy is awesome, why wouldn't I like her? She's my writing partner!"

Happy strode away in search of the kitchen.

"Oi! I am not ignoring my feelings. I am not giving you fish till you tell me what you mean," Natsu threatened. He pulled his t-shirt off and threw it in the laundry bin.

Happy sat by the fridge - he knew there was a fish in there just waiting for him - and meowed.

"I suppose that would potentially mean I beat Gray to getting a girlfriend. If Lucy wanted to…" Natsu said as he opened the fridge and pulled out the plate of covered tuna. Happy jumped up on the counter and began attacking the fish.

"Wait a moment, let me get the cling film off," Natsu muttered. He pulled it off and Happy resumed his attack. "Maybe you're right. Then I'd get first dibs on reading her story too."

Natsu wandered into his bedroom, flicked the light off and flopped on his bed.

"Thanks, Happy!"

* * *

Natsu knew he was early the following Saturday. Not only was he early, he'd also finished the task for that week - writing an interview with one of the characters at a chosen point in the story.

"Hey," Lucy said as she took her seat. "What do you want? My treat!"

Natsu gave his order and Lucy ran off to get their drinks. It had become something of a routine. But now, he was watching her order and smiling at the barista.

"I'm not so sure about this Happy," Natsu muttered under his breath. "No," he corrected himself. "Wimping out is what Gray would do."

He knew this wasn't exactly true, but it bolstered his confidence nonetheless.

Lucy passed his drink over a few minutes later.

"Aren't you writing today?" she asked.

"Nope, I've already finished this week's assignment."

"So why are you here?" Lucy asked with a frown.

"I wanted to see you," Natsu said. His own cheeks were threatening to blush. He fought the sensation down, kind of.

Lucy's cheeks had no such success.

But Lucy blushing was a good thing right?

"Oh," she mumbled.

"I wanted to ask you something."

"Really?" she squeaked.

"I was wondering if you were busy on Halloween?"

"I hadn't thought that far ahead yet," she replied. "Why?"

Her eyes were wide and she was biting her lip.

"Well my friends are throwing a party and I wondered if you wanted to come-"

"Yes!" she said quickly.

"-with me?" Natsu finished. "Like a date…"

"Oh!"

Natsu looked away.

"It's okay we can just go as friends if you want," he said quickly.

"Like a date?" she repeated. "Are you sure?"

"Well Happy thought it was a good idea," Natsu muttered.

"You asked your cat if you should ask me on a date or not?"

"He gives good advice! It's his fault I ended up here in the first place!"

"And what would Happy advise me to do?"

"He'd definitely tell you to grab me while you can," Natsu said. "I'm quality stuff. I mean how many other people can beat Gray?"

"Alright then," Lucy said with a laugh. "I'll go on a date with you."

Natsu downed the rest of his drink and stood up.

"Awesome!" he said. "I need to go to the dojo early today."

"Why?"

"To rub it in Gray's face that I got a girlfriend before him!"

And with that, he ran off. Lucy didn't have the heart to point out that a single date wasn't quite the same as being girlfriend and boyfriend. She didn't think she minded either way. Maybe listening to the cat's advice wasn't such a bad idea after all.

* * *

 **Author's note: Well I found the first 2500 words of this in my Google Drive and thought I really ought to finish it off! I have a load of other half finished pieces I need to sort out too... Hope you enjoyed it! Please review :)**


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